Disaster Letters to the Editor: Want to use the system to help homeless neighbors? Good luck

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Letters to the Editor: Want to use the system to help homeless neighbors? Good luck​

To the editor: I am grateful for homeless outreach volunteer Daniel Polansky's story about trying get services for his unhoused friend.

I have a similar experience to share. I am a street chaplain for homeless neighbors in northeast Los Angeles. I visit many neighbors, but of course I have favorites too. One of my favorite neighbors has been sick for weeks and in and out of the hospital.

I tried to get her a hotel room for the week of Christmas, paying out of my organization's funds, but could not pay for a room to get her off the street myself, as she has no ID. She has lived in Los Angeles since the early 1990s and birthed three U.S. citizens, but she needs help to even start immigration paperwork after all these years.

I have been doing my best to stay in my lane as a chaplain and assist our neighbors and our beloved and overworked case workers and authorities. But it sure is hard for a private citizen to use our great system to personally help the poor.

Dave Saltzman, Los Angeles

..

To the editor: Everyone wants to know why there are so many homeless people in Los Angeles. People don't choose to be homeless, but we are treated like bums. And getting help is not as easy.

I became homeless because the system failed. Homeowners and property owners want tenants to pay their rent and abide by their rules. But they don't follow Section 8 protocol, or the minute you do something they don't like, you're on the street.

I am a licensed security guard. I work and pay my bills.

Shannon Franklin, Norwalk

 

[ZeeMarin]

So why don’t the kids of the woman help her?

 

[Sparkletor 2.0]

These big shot landlords want me to pay my rent and follow their rules. The moment I don't they kick me out! What's up with that?

 

[LaxerBRO]

Just do what Cypress Creek on The Simpsons did:

 

[DumbDude42]

To the editor: Everyone wants to know why there are so many homeless people in Los Angeles

non meme answers:
-because the city is overcrowded to an insane degree
-because local govt is extremely incompetent and delusional
-because california state govt is similarly incompetent and delusional
-because, as a result of insane govt shenanigans, the local real estate and construction markets are distorted and fucked up by perverse incentives and moral hazards, leading to widespread inefficiency and dysfunction in these markets

 

[Ruin]

The elephant in the room no one wants to acknowledge is that the overwhelming majority of homeless are hard drug addicts. No amount of free shit will help them as long as they are using.

 

[Butcher Pete]

“I tried to get her a hotel room for the week of Christmas, paying out of my organization's funds, but could not pay for a room to get her off the street myself, as she has no ID. She has lived in Los Angeles since the early 1990s and birthed three U.S. citizens, but she needs help to even start immigration paperwork after all these years.”

Hmmm, something seems (((suspicious))) about this…

“Dave Saltzman, Los Angeles”

Morpheus was right—I no longer have to look up Early Life.

Where are the three “US citizens” she birthed?

Also, if you are homeless, you are by definition no one’s neighbor.

 

[derpherp2]

non meme answers:
-because the city is overcrowded to an insane degree
-because local govt is extremely incompetent and delusional
-because california state govt is similarly incompetent and delusional
-because, as a result of insane govt shenanigans, the local real estate and construction markets are distorted and fucked up by perverse incentives and moral hazards, leading to widespread inefficiency and dysfunction in these markets

Dont forget:
-Free gibs
-An easy to access rail system and train system
-Key points in the train system that has homeless shelters, a hostel, food banks, etc
-D O W N W A R D S P I R A L
-Deliberately ignorant, yet smug, constituents thinking throwing money - that they don't have, at problems will solve it.
-"Fuck you got mine" mentality.
-Welfare State.

 

[NoReturn]

So why don’t the kids of the woman help her?

Where are the three “US citizens” she birthed?

See:

The elephant in the room no one wants to acknowledge is that the overwhelming majority of homeless are hard drug addicts. No amount of free shit will help them as long as they are using.

Just because someone got knocked up doesn't mean those children are now her caretakers. I've seen way too many shitty parents at this point that now if I see an "abandoned homeless parent" I no longer automatically assume the kids are the "problem".

 

[Butcher Pete]

See:

Just because someone got knocked up doesn't mean those children are now her caretakers. I've seen way too many shitty parents at this point that now if I see an "abandoned homeless parent" I no longer automatically assume the kids are the "problem".

All of which only distracts from the fact that the homeless drug-addict spic is only in the US because of her three anchor babies and the (((fellow whites))) who enabled the situation.

No sympathy, and nooses for all involved.

 

[Spicey McHaggis]

The elephant in the room no one wants to acknowledge is that the overwhelming majority of homeless are hard drug addicts. No amount of free shit will help them as long as they are using.

The other one is that drug addicts or not, a sizable majority are severely mentally ill people who refuse to properly medicate. This is the great unintended consequence of closing down mental institutions.

 

[Sparkletor 2.0]

The time this guy took to write a letter to the editor he could have spent helping this woman get an ID card. Then she could get a hotel room.

Easier still, he could use his ID to rent a room, pay for the week, and let her stay there. This would only be a problem if she refused to leave or trashed the room or something. I'm sure the homeless illegal alien undocumented American wouldn't do a thing like that.

 

[Constellationzero]

Didn't need no Welfare State...

EVERYBODY PULLED HIS WEIGHT!

Gee, our old LaSalle ran great...

 

[Fomo Hoire]

Good job on trying to help, that's more than a lot of people do.

But why not invite them into your own home, isn't that the usual criticism of rich pro immigration celebrities and politicians? People have multiple homes but no guest room?

I've heard of people loaning guest rooms on an individual basis before, but usually they're more... Conservative or religious types. Charity over social security.

Does Dave Saltzman not know his favorite homeless neighbor as well as he claims to? Does he know that she would refuse to leave when rent's up, and is he bitter that he was thwarted by ID before she could try?

Why didn't he just start a month earlier and get her an ID? He didn't say they needed a REAL ID and you ain't convincing me that California doesn't have an type of non-citizen ID. Get her into a shelter or a PO box or whatever hacks there are to get an address, get her an ID, move her into the nice hotel for Christmas.

Or open up your home in the true spirit of the holiday. If you know her and she's your favorite surely you can trust her.

 

[Sailor Kim Jong Moon]

Evictions take time + a court. You dont just get kicked to the street. Werethey trying to make a meth lab in the living room? Or did they turn the condo into a brothel. One has to wonder…

 

[TowinKarz]

The elephant in the room no one wants to acknowledge is that the overwhelming majority of homeless are hard drug addicts. No amount of free shit will help them as long as they are using.

And another large percentage of them are people with mental illness, free shit will also not help someone who is not getting treatment and burns everything the leprechaun in their head tells them to..... including their "free" lodgings.

 

[Red Hood]

Dont forget:
-Free gibs
-An easy to access rail system and train system
-Key points in the train system that has homeless shelters, a hostel, food banks, etc
-D O W N W A R D S P I R A L
-Deliberately ignorant, yet smug, constituents thinking throwing money - that they don't have, at problems will solve it.
-"Fuck you got mine" mentality.
-Welfare State.

Homeless people flock to the west in particular due to the climate. And they congregate around the city because that's where the handouts come from.

 

[northstar747]

Homeless people flock to the west in particular due to the climate. And they congregate around the city because that's where the handouts come from.

And a source for their drugs.

 

[TurdFondler]

The core problem is that society treats these people as, well, people. As in, with the belief they have the ability to make proper rational choices. Through mental illness or drug addiction, or both, these chronically homeless will not act in rational ways or prioritize their well being.

To deprive a regular citizen of agency is cruel, but if you force these people into institutionalized housing and get them clean is it cruelty? I think it's barbaric to let them live in the street even if it's "their choice".

And on a more self serving note, why do they get to shit up the city I as a tax payer paid for? I don't want to live in a shitted up hellhole with tarp cities and used needles.

 

[Spicey McHaggis]

Evictions take time + a court. You dont just get kicked to the street. Werethey trying to make a meth lab in the living room? Or did they turn the condo into a brothel. One has to wonder…

This applies even moreso to California, it can take years to evict someone there. It's a long drawn out process, which contributes to the high cost of living.